How To Make Achars

Description

How To Make Achars

Achar Of Tamarind

Shell some ripe tamarinds, mix with salt and dry them thoroughly in the sun. Mix with enough mustard oil, powders of chillies, mustard, aniseed and any or every other spices except turmeric, and put them in an earthen pot. Put the pot in the sun at intervals of 2 or 3 days with the lid. open allowing the sunbeams to fall directly into it.

Achar Of Brinjals

Remove the stalks of a few brinjals weighing 1 seer and make hollows within them by removing the cores with a knife. Stuff them with thrashed green mangoes 1 1/2 powa mixed with pasted ginger, powdered mustard and salt 1 chhatak each and powdered black cumin 1/2 chhatak. Close the openings with the stalks with a little flour-paste and dry them in the sun till the natural colour of the brinjals fades away and the surface becomes rough. Then keep them immersed in oil. They will be ready for eating after a few weeks.

Achar Of Ginger

Peel 1 seer of ginger and wash them. Then cut them in pieces, smear with 1 powa of salt and 1/2 chhatak of powdered pepper and keep aside for a few hours. Then keep them immersed in lemon-juice for a week, keeping all the while in the open atmosphere. Then pick the pieces out and keep covered in a stone or earthen pot.

Achar Of Onion

Peel some onions and half boil them. Then smear them with pasted ginger, salt, powdered black cumin and broken chillies in adequate, quantities, and keep them immersed in vinegar in a covered jar.

Achar Of Sajina Flower

Make a thick paste of 1 1/2 powa of seedless ripe tamarinds with a little water and mix it with 1 powa of washed and perfectly dried sajina flowers. Also mix with 1/2 powa of salt and a paste of I powa of mustard and keep in an airtight jar for a day. Then mix with 1/2 chhatak of powdered chillies and I powa of mustard oil, dry them in the sun for a whole day and keep in the jar. Pieces of green chillies and dried pieces of brinjals may be added if desired.

Achar Of Amlaki

Make a few deep cuts on each of some ripe and fresh amlaki fruits and remove the seeds if you can. Boil them in plenty of water till soft. Then drain out the water and wash with fresh cold water. Drop them in a boiling syrup of sugar and boil for 20 or 25 minutes. Then make a paste of powders of chillies, pepper, aniseed, cardamom seeds, pasted or powdered ginger in adequate quantities with little mustard oil, smear the boiled fruits with it and preserve in an airtight jar.

Achar Of Arum

Peel an arum and cut in big pieces. Boil 1 seer of the pieces with 1 seer of green tamarind leaves or 1/2 seer of tamarinds till soft. Then wash them with fresh water, smear with 1 chhatak of salt and a paste of 1/2 powa of mustards, and dry them in the sun for 2 or 3 days. Then keep them immersed in plenty of mustard oil. At least a week must elapse before it is taken. All achars can be preserved for several months.

Achar Of Mangoes

Remove the stalks of a few green mangoes and cut them in halves. Throw away the seeds, mix 1 powa of salt with 1 seer of the pieces and dry them perfectly in the sun. Then mix them with powders of chillies mustard and salt 1 chhatak each and enough mustard oil to saturate them, and keep in an airtight jar. Keep the jar in the sun for several days.

Achar Of Mangoes (French Preparation)

Peel a few green mangoes and cut them in such a way that the seeds are easily removed keeping the mangoes entire. Smear them with salt and dry them in the sun for 2 or 3 days. Then fill up their interiors with a mixture of powders of aniseed, chillies, cloves and cinnamon, a paste of ginger and cardamom seeds. Bind. them with pieces of thread and keep immersed in vinegar with a little mustard oil at the top in an airtight glass jar.

Achar Of Lemon

Rub some lemons (pati or goura preferable) against a piece of blanket till all the minute oily particles on the skin of the lemons are completely removed. It is a tedious job which nevertheless must be done. Then make a few cuts on each, smear 1 powa of salt on 1 seer of the lemons and keep in an airtight glass jar. Keep the jar in the open atmosphere. Achar will be ready after about a month and can be preserved for about a year.